In fact, you might want to look at Sunday's stunning trades involving 10 players and three teams, as a start. For now, the Leafs hope:

• the goaltending got better with J.S. Giguere;

• the defence got much tougher with Dion Phaneuf

• the penalty killing got better with Fredrik Sjostrom

• and the farm system got a little deeper with defenceman Keith Aulie, a former Team Canada world junior gold medallist, joining the Marlies.

“From my perspective, it adds a vital building block to our blue print with Dion Phaneuf,” said Burke. “And I think it adds a couple of other useful parts. It provides the structure we need to have in the goaltending position.

“For us, it's a very important day.”

But the remake of the Maple Leafs – in Burke's image – will continue.

“We are in buying and selling mode,” said Burke. “Our goal at the start of the season is to make the playoffs. I know people are going to think there's an issue here as far as my sanity. It's still our goal.

“We have some guys who are in rental modes as far as our contracts. We're listening on those guys. We're looking to add as well.

“I think this deal takes some offence out of our lineup. That's the next question, who replaces that offence?”

And the offence wasn't that great to begin with for a team that is on a six-game losing streak (0-4-2).

For the short term, it means more playing time for both John Mitchell (three goals, eight assists) and Rickard Wallin (no goals, three assists), both healthy scratches on Saturday night. Mitchell is playing for a contract, but has yet to prove worthy of a long term deal.

At the beginning of the season, coach Ron Wilson said he thought Mitchell could score 20 goals. He's got the size and speed of an NHLer, but not the hands. Mitchell will be lucky to get to 10.

Wallin has been a disappointment since signing from Sweden, and hasn't scored since the pre-lockout era.

It also means some call-ups from the Marlies. Christian Hanson and Viktor Stalberg would be the most likely candidates. Plenty of playing time for players under 25.

“Watching (Tyler) Bozak play, I'm confident he can get the job done,” said coach Ron Wilson. “We'll bring up Marlies, but I haven't been fair with Wallin in getting him ice time, but he'll get some now. John Mitchell has a chance to focus on playing better without looking over his shoulder.

“I didn't calculate how many goals we've lost. We'll have to find ways to manufacture offence, but I'm confident when you give ice time to people, you can never calculate how much offence they'll make up, but they'll have opportunities and they'll score on some.

“But with one fell swoop, we made ourselves the youngest team in the league. We're not looking back, we're looking forward now.”

Salary implications loomed large in these trades. Gigeure and Phaneuf become the highest-paid Leafs. Giguere will earn $7 million next season (although his cap hit will be $6 million). Phaneuf will earn an average of $6.5 million until the 2013-14 season.

If Phaneuf doesn't become the stud defenceman Burke hopes, that salary will hobble him in future years. Sjostrom has another year left at $750,000.

By comparison, Calgary gets two players who will be unrestricted free agents – Matt Stajan and Jamal Mayers while White will be an restrcited free agent and Hagman has a cap-friendly annual salary of $3 million left for the next two seasons.

The Ducks also save money, shedding Giguere's contract and not really needing UFA Toskala next season. They just signed goalie Jonas Hiller to a four-year, $18 million deal, so now their goaltending is much cheaper.

And Blake's salary serves as ballast. He's only going to be paid $3 million a year for the next two years, even though his cap hit is $4 million.

For Burke, getting Phaneuf was the centrepiece of the deal. He called him an “elite” player, citing Phil Kessel as the only other elite player on the team.

“In my mind, we build from the net out,” said Burke. “If you don't have good defencemen, you're not going to win. It doesn't matter how good your forwards are. It's been a hallmark of all my teams, build through defence.

“We're getting an elite defenceman and a guy who plays our kind of hockey. He likes it crude. And likes it black and blue. That's how we want to play.”

The seven-player deal with Calgary was the largest trade by Toronto since former GM (now advisor) Cliff Fletcher and the New York Islanders traded six players and a draft pick (who became Roberto Luongo) in 1996, a deal that saw Wendel Clark return to the Maple Leafs.

Moving 10 players in one day rivals that Fletcher, who made a five-for-five trade with Calgary on Jan. 2, 1992, that turned around a moribund club with the centrepiece then being Doug Gilmour.

“Cliff's signature deals involved multiple players,” said Burke. “It's harder to do. I think deals are good for our business. They're exciting for people. You don't do them for that reason.

“The juice in the GM's job is deals. This is when you feel like a GM, when you make a trade.They're not extinct, trades, but they're endangered. It's nice to pull one off.”

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